Violin finger board



Nov.' 6 1923. 17,472,943

A. SHAEFFER VIOLIN FINGER' BOARD Filed May 25. 1921 Patented Nov. 6, 1923.

Unirse STATES ARLING SHAEFFER, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

VIOLIN FINGER BOARD.

Application filed May 25, 1921. Serial No. 472,516.`

To all w hom 15 may concern:

Be it known that l, ARLING citizen of the United States, and a resident of the city of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and yuseful Improvements in Violin Finger Boards, of which the following is a specification.

'lf his invention relates to improvements in the fingerboards of stringed instruments played with a bow, such, for example, as the violin, the violoncello and bass-viol, the finger-boards of which are commonly smooth, substantially flat and without any visual indication of the location of any of its frets, with the result that both talented and unt-alented pupils have heretofore been compelled to devote many years constant, tiring practice before acquiring the necesg sary skill while playing the instrument for unhcsitatingly locating the pressure ofthe lingers directly upon the contact placeon the fingerboard, giving the perfect interval of tone, and as must be done before anyone :an successfully play such an instrument.

The object of my invention is to provide the linger-board of every stringed instru ment played with a bow, and particularly the violin. with a simple means, visually indicating the location of all of its intervals of tone, and which will enable every pupil, while playing the instrument, to successfully acquire the ability to master the fingering of such an instrument, including double stops and wavering tones, in materially and substantially less time, with less practice, effortand instruction than has heretofore been possible or practicable.

it; further object of my invention is to provide for visibly locating the perfect intervals on the finger-board of a violin, by means least marring its usual and commonly accepted appearance, the construction of which f is such thatthey have no tendency to ravel or wear and thereby. destroy the texture of the strings sooner than at any other given point, nor change the intonations of the instrument.

lVith these ends in view my invention finds embodiment in certain features of novelty the construction, combination and arrangement of parts by which the said ob-V jects are attained, all as hereinafter fully described with reference to the accompany? ino' drawings and more particularly pointedbou't in the Claims.

SHAEFFER, a

In said drawings,

Fig. 1 illustrates a top plan view of the linger-board of a violin in which my in vention finds its embodiment.

Fig. 2 is a side elevation thereof partly in section and F ig. 3 is a similar view, showing the crest between the grooves somewhat blunter or more flatly rounded than in Fig. 2.

For carrying out my invention, the fingerboard 3 is provided transversely with a series of transverse grooves 4.-, the adjacent sides of which meet and visibly locate the intervals of the scale 5 of the finger-board, which grooves in practice are curved transversely, the width of which grooves therefore successively increase one-eighteenth of an inch from the groove next the keys of the instrument toward the bridge thereof.

The grooves l are formed transversely on the arc of a circle; are quite shallow and may be more or less flat at their bottom in order that the pressure of the finger upon any string for depressing it to operative en gagement with the contact of thel string neXt forward of the finger need not begreater than is necessary for maintaining the string in its operative position on the predetermined fret, and this at whatever point between the two frets the pressure of the linger may be directed.

The use of grooves, curved more or less, and particularly near their meeting edges, is an important feature of my invention, providing, as they do. a surface conforming to that of the ends of the human finger, for the exertion of minimum finger force for deflecting the strings to operative contact with the visible frets and for the natural movement of the finger between two frets for producing wavering tones and for imparting range to the latter, not possible with the use of frets angular in cross-section, as the latter would mar the instrument to an objectionable extent, which the shallow curved grooves do not.

The linger-board of my invention can be adjusted to any violin having a smooth lfinger-board, by simply removing the latter and replacing it with the finger-board of my invention, as will be readily understood by bearing in mind that the length of fingerboards varies only with the differing sizes of violins.

It has been found in practice by a number of teachers that they are saved much time and ellort in teaching the lingering of stringed instruments played with a bow, and particularly of the violin, when the violins of the students are provided with my invention, and this whether singly or in classes. In other words, students ol' the violin, on finding that, with the use of my invention on their violins, they can pleasingly play their lessons and pieces in a very 'few weeks, or months, at most, without having 'Ito eX- actly locate any of the intervals with `the tips of their lingers, instead of being compelled to constantly practice for years, as others have had to do, quickly have imparted to them so much conlidence in their ability to play the instrument as to result in an enthusiasm carrying them forward in the well-founded belief of very-soon acquiring intuitively the exact Vlocation ot the intervals ot `the strings and thereby becoming successful players of the instrument.

Following the use ol my invention, numbers of students have not hesitated to assure their teachers that within about a year or less, they experience no dillieulty when playing` a violin, the frets for which are invisible, to unerringly locate such intervals With their lingers, and seemingly by intuition.

ln conclusion, it is to be observed that the grooves, the meeting side edges of which visibly indicate the intervals, are contingu- Aously formed from the material of which the linger board is made, and that the use of metal frets for musical instruments of the character described herein has a constant tendency to wear through and ravel player.

Having described my invention, what l claim and desi-re to secure by Letters Pat ent :is:

l. A linger-board 'for stringed musical 'instruments played with a bow, provided with unobstructed concave grooves immedi la-tely adjacent yeach other, the meetingportions of which ygrooves are bluntcd and visibly lindicate and constitute the several trets lor the strings.

2. Ina stringedA musical instrument played with 'a bow, a linger-board provided with transverse grooves the edges ol which merge one into the other and visibly torni and locate the tone intervals on the scale ot the vlinger-board.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this 21st day of May, 1921.

ARLING SHAEFFER. 

